Saturday, March 26, 2005
Dr. Rice ain't stupid
From this article
Rice, in an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters, said she was guided less by a fear that Islamic extremists would replace authoritarian governments than by a "strong certainty that the Middle East was not going to stay stable anyway." Extremism, she said, is rooted in the "absence of other channels for political activity," and so "when you know that the status quo is no longer defensible, then you have to be willing to move in another direction."
That was why I supported the invasion of Iraq. The status quo ante in Iraq wasn't exactly wonderful, with large numbers of American troops in Saudi Arabia maintaining a UN-created cage that slowly starved millions of Iraqis. I also didn't want to just remove the cage, leaving Saddam Hussein free to pursue his dreams of being a latter-day Nebuchadnezzar.
In other words, reshuffling the deck in the middle east can't be too problematic, as everybody was losing anyway.
From this article
Rice, in an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters, said she was guided less by a fear that Islamic extremists would replace authoritarian governments than by a "strong certainty that the Middle East was not going to stay stable anyway." Extremism, she said, is rooted in the "absence of other channels for political activity," and so "when you know that the status quo is no longer defensible, then you have to be willing to move in another direction."
That was why I supported the invasion of Iraq. The status quo ante in Iraq wasn't exactly wonderful, with large numbers of American troops in Saudi Arabia maintaining a UN-created cage that slowly starved millions of Iraqis. I also didn't want to just remove the cage, leaving Saddam Hussein free to pursue his dreams of being a latter-day Nebuchadnezzar.
In other words, reshuffling the deck in the middle east can't be too problematic, as everybody was losing anyway.
